Wow what a week over in Orlando. Strange times still in the U.K. as we’re half way through our mini lockdown number 2 – I say mini because apparently it’s fine to get your dog groomed, buy a Christmas tree and go to a garden centre, but not to see your parents or have your hair cut! Gripe over – sighs – nonsense. So never mind what’s happening here – let’s focus on the very fabulous and exciting happenings over in Orlando.
Firstly oh what a joy the Christmas decorations have been so far. The Magic Kingdom looks spectacular, as does Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. The resorts are all starting to get their trees up and oh my goodness the decorations are truly fantastic. Sky high trees and twinkly lights and Christmas music, treats and drinks. It all looks very pretty and cheers us up no end on a cold dark dreary evening in the U.K.
One of our favourite places to visit, Boggy Creek (who doesn’t love an airboat ride and the chance to see some wildlife?) is starting their Christmas festivities, Jolly Creek. They have lights and music and choirs and treats galore, and snow and Santa, as well as well as a Christmas Fayre of craft vendors with some lovely things to purchase. How wonderful.
Also earlier this week – BIG NEWS – WDW were testing fireworks out!! I know!! Actual fireworks in the Magic Kingdom. A lucky collection of our fave vloggers heard the news in advance and were sat atop the Contemporary Resort waiting for a peek. What a joy to see the (few) fireworks over the top of Cinderella Castle once more, I’m not crying, you’re crying! No word on when they will actually be re-starting officially but baby steps forward are still a good sign.
Over in Universal Studios the Horror Night Tribute Store has now become a Christmas Store, with three rooms of Christmas loveliness, a German Christmas Market type room, a Seuss Grinch room with a fancy fireplace and boinging noises, a Harry Potter themed room and a room full of treats to eat and drink and Earl’s Christmas Trees. There are decorations and merchandise to purchase and the theming looks amazing. The treats look absolutely delicious and we have it on good authority that the Gingerbread Whoopie Pie and the Chocolate Bomb are delightful. The Chocolate Bomb is a hot chocolate, with a chocolate beautifully coloured Christmas Bauble which you get to drop into the hot chocolate. As the chocolate melts it reveals that it’s full of marshmallows. Sounds like a lot of chocolatey goodness!
The giant tree is up, along with little sightings of Earl the squirrel so keep your eyes peeled. This year Earl is playing it safe and wearing a mask. All the usual favourites are now doing their holiday inspired sets and there’s an additional stage of singing and dancing elves too by the tree.
The replacement for the Macy’s Holiday Balloon parade has also opened. The balloons are all set up for a walk through attraction and it looks fantastic. You can take as long as you want in there and walk around and take photos and film, which saves the hunt for the right “spot” to witness the parade from. Whilst you’re in there you can have a quick chat with Santa and we also spotted Gru by the Minions balloon who was all too happy to pose for photos.
Universal also have their Christmas Tree hunt set up – spot all of the themed trees around the stores and get a stamp in each one – for a present at the end. The trees we’ve seen so far look fantastic and fun for the whole family dashing about finding them all.
Icon Park is all set up for the holiday season too and is decorated and lit up ready for all the family. Lots to do over there so well worth a look. Disney Springs also has a Christmas Tree trail to follow and you get a pre-printed little map there with stickers to put on it when you have seen each tree. Very cute indeed.
Lovely to see the walkway between The Grand Floridian and The Magic Kingdom finally open yesterday too. Our lovely friends over at Ear to Ear Magic took the walk over there yesterday evening to show us the route. It looked like a super walk, apart from the unpredicted rain shower at the start, which thankfully dried up pretty quickly. Cannot wait to take that walk ourselves when we finally get back there. We do like a stroll and sometimes when the transportation routes are all jammed a little walk to a resort, and maybe a sit down and a drink until the crowds thin out, sounds like good plan to us.
More restaurants are opening up in WDW theme parks in the next few weeks. The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom finally gets to re-open in the next couple of weeks along with Woody’s Lunchbox (which has been much needed over in Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios) and also The Lunching Pad in Magic Kingdom. Still no word on Casey’s Corner but someone did spot socially distanced queue lines marked on the floor outside, so who knows, maybe that might re-open soon too.
There’s also been news that some of the cast and performers previously laid off are being rehired with it looking like some of the shows and performances may restart – which is wonderful news for cast and guests alike.
But possibly the biggest news of all this week is the return of (trumpet fanfare) Park Hopping. Oh yes – excellent news indeed. As Disney announces that they will start increasing park guest capacity over coming months, from 1st January 2021 Park Hopping is back. This is splendid news and makes navigating parks to your party’s best advantage much easier. So far the details released mean that as long as you have a park reservation for any park on the day you want to park hop, and you go to that park you booked first, from 2pm on the same day you can hop into any other Disney park without the need to make a further reservation. Of course plans and rules may change but that’s the first released version of the new options. Great news indeed *does a little jig of excitement , because it’s a much more affordable way to do WDW if you can do more than one park in a day. It’s also much easier with a family if you can dip in and out to multiple parks and with little mutterings of fireworks coming back it means you could have a morning in Hollywood Studios, pop off back to your resort for a light lunch and a chill by the pool and then head back into Magic Kingdom early evening for an after dark mooch about and the possibility of some fireworks, castle projections, or – dare we say it – watch a show.
All in all a week of positive news out of Orlando, WDW and Universal, with a real prospect of a happy holiday season. We just need the U.K. to catch up now.
Have a great week all – stay well and safe and keep moving forward and hope for happy times ahead.
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